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What is “resistance” in pedagogy? Let’s start with Merriam-Webster’s top 2 definitions.
Resistance is:
1. An act of instance of resisting (opposition); a means of resisting
2. The power or capacity to resist; the ability to resist harmful influences; or the capacity to survive
(Resistance Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster)
With the first definition, the act of resistance in higher education may feel like a bad word; if a student resists, they are opposing, maybe even feel as if they are resisting the teachers’ sharing of knowledge, instruction, or engagement in learning.
However, if we reflect on the second definition, enabling students with the power or capacity to resist – resist harmful influences – and the capacity to survive – and its application in higher education, we apply pedagogies for changing-making and transformation.
So, what are Resisting Pedagogies?
Resisting Pedagogies work against the traditional ways of thinking, against the dominant ideologies, and support students to apply critical thinking skills to question received ideas. When applying Resistant Pedagogies, as teachers, we engage with other disciplines to break down boundaries to create collaborative, brave spaces to talk about change without being shamed.
1. Resistant Pedagogies challenge hierarchy: When teachers apply Resisting Pedagogies, students are required to engage in self-directed learning and find agency to make change in society and to thrive in these practices. Teachers are no longer the experts, and students’ are given credit as experts in their experiences. When students are provided space to challenge hierarchy, to resist the status quo, resist the harmful influences, such as capitalism and binary ways of thinking and doing, students
2. Resistant Pedagogies are political: When applying Resistant Pedagogies, all aspects of teaching and learning, from the classroom community, syllabus, assessments and evaluations, curriculum and learning outcomes, are political. The systemic oppression which has been perpetrated in the dominant discourse of Euro-centric norms, Western beliefs, and binary ways of thinking and doing of education is challenged. The goal, starting in the classroom, must be to challenge these beliefs to create opportunities for change.
3. Resistant Pedagogies are transformational outside the classroom: Resisting Pedagogies work to transform society outside the classroom. They support the questioning of your discipline in the real world – and identify areas where practices need to change or where there are approaches that are missing.
Final thoughts
If the goal of higher education is to prepare students to become the change-makers and leaders of tomorrows, our role as teachers is to support them to challenge the status quo, become politically and critically aware, and engage in actions that may begin to address the challenges that create exclusion and oppression.
When applying Resisting Pedagogies, students as seen as whole-beings and they are brought into the process of revitalization, renewal and refreshing approaches to their discipline.
Resisting Pedagogies are not mutually exclusive.
The following list is not exhaustive, and the corresponding articles is a sample. It is a place to start.
Feminist Standpoints Feminist Pedagogy: Transformations, Standpoints, and Politics (jstor.org)
Anti-Racism: Reflections on operationalizing an anti-racism pedagogy: Teaching as regional storytelling
Critical Race (or Anti-Black Racism) Studies: Critical race pedagogy for more effective and inclusive world language teaching
Queer Pedagogy: Queer (v.) pedagogy
Mad Studies: Unlearning through mad studies: Disruptive pedagogical praxis.
Performance Art and Intermedia Studies: Transperformative education: Toward a new educational paradigm based on transdisciplinarity and artistic performativity (tandfonline.com)
Disabilities Studies: Towards socially just pedagogies: Deleuzoguattarian critical disability studies
Decolonization: Decolonization as pedagogy: A praxis of ‘becoming’.
Gender Studies: Pedagogy and student change in the women’s and gender studies classroom (tandfonline.com)
Social Justice Studies: Internationalizing the curriculum: Pedagogy for social justice –
Labour Studies: Twenty-First-Century Workers’ Education in North America
Want to read more about Resisting Pedagogies? Check out these resources:
hooks, b. (1995). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.
Want to learn more about Resisting Pedagogies at the University of Windsor? Join our Community of Practice.
Natalie Beltrano spent 15 years in child welfare before returning to higher education to obtain her Master of Social Work with a specialization in Leadership in Human Service Organizations from the University of Calgary. She entered the PhD program at the University of Windsor in the faculty of social work in 2019. Her dissertation research is focused on child welfare worker decision-making and the impact of anti-Black racism.
She is in the process of obtaining her University Teaching Certificate from the CTL and has worked as a Graduate Assistant over the last 3 years. She has had the privilege of facilitating lectures for the GATAcademy, and teaches as a sessional for the University of Windsor’s Master of Social Work Working Professionals and Durham College’s Social Service Worker programs. She is a fur-mum to a St. Berdoodle, Abby, and Labradoodle, Zoey, as well as a black cat named Dum Dum.
Erica Stevens Abbitt is Professor Emerita, School of Dramatic Art, and a former director of the University of Windsor’s Humanities Research Group. She is currently a Teaching and Learning Senior Fellow at the Centre for Teaching and Learning.
A graduate of McGill, Stevens Abbitt worked as an actor in Canada, the US and Britain before completing a doctorate in theatre studies at UCLA.
Her writings on girl culture, politics, pedagogy and feminist performance have been featured in theatre journals and texts, including The Theatre of Naomi Wallace: Embodied Dialogues (Palgrave 2014). She is passionate about mentorship, interdisciplinary exchange, and the importance of liberal arts education in contemporary society.
As a college instructor, I have found resistance difficult to manage at times. This really is such a refreshing and enlightening way to explore this topic. I look forward to sharing it with my colleagues. Thank you for this article.